Yesterday saw the NSW Parliament’s Standing Committee on State Development inquiry into the feasibility of undergrounding the transmission infrastructure for renewable energy projects come to Wagga Wagga and Tumut.

The Committee Members that came included Chair the Hon. Emily Suvaal MLC, the Hon. Stephen Lawrence MLC, the Hon. Wes Fang MLC and the Hon. Cate Faehrmann MLC.

I would like to thank Mr Peter Lawson and Ms Pippa Quilty for providing access to their farms and hosting local landowners so that the Committee themselves could see where the giant Humelink towers would be placed and hear testimony from the community about the environmental and economic concerns they have.

After the farm visits there was a productive public hearing at the Tumut Golf Club that saw nearly a hundred community members squish into a small club hall, such is the interest in this issue.

Powerful testimony was given by Professor Simon Bartlett, Mr Les Brand and Mr Ken Barber, all of whom are veteran energy transmission infrastructure experts. Their compelling evidence strongly noted the benefits of undergrounding, which is international best practice, and raised the question: why should Australian taxpayers spend billions of dollars on building infrastructure from the last century?

The community should be commended for the heartfelt, well researched and quality evidence they provided at the hearing and I thank them for their respectful participation in the inquiry. Some of the main points included the elevated fire risk, the restriction of movement imposed on firefighting operations underneath powerlines during fires, the loss of visual amenity and the impact on the local economy because of loss of tourism and visual amenity and the harm that overhead towers will cause to agricultural land.

Representatives of Snowy Valleys Council and the General Manager of Wagga Wagga City council also gave powerful evidence.

I was asked by the Hon. Stephen Lawrence MLC whether it was too late to change direction from the proposed overhead lines and go underground. I replied that it is never too late to do the right thing.

Our nationwide energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy is a historic moment for Australia; so let’s get it right.